Saakashvili: I Will Return to Ukraine and Georgia

Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s former President and active opposition leader in Ukraine, who was arrested on February 12 in Kyiv and sent to Poland, says he will return back to Ukraine and Georgia as well.

In his interview with Georgia’s local opposition-minded Rustavi 2 TV, Saakashvili said the governance of two oligarchs - Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko and Georgia’s ex-Prime Minister, tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, will end soon.

“The ruling of oligarchs in Georgia and Ukraine will end sooner than expected…people see no prospects and leave the countries. This must be changed. I have to return and improve the situation,” Saakashvili claimed.

Georgia’s ex-president says that he plans to organize protest rallies. He called Petro Poroshenko a “typical product of the Soviet Union”, adding he must be overthrown and sent to prison.

“I believe we will organize protest movements together and remove the oligarchs from the power… Under the conditions of modern technologies, I will be as effective in Europe as I was in Ukraine. I was observed and spied in Ukraine; I am free and ten times more dangerous here, in Poland than I was in Ukraine,” he added.

Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia (POG) released a statement regarding Saakashvili, saying they sent the extradition request to Poland in August 2017, when Saakashvili was in Warsaw, adding the request is still in force and they are waiting for the proper response.

Saakashvili, who is also Ukraine’s former Odessa Governor and the leader of Ukraine’s opposition New Forces party, was detained in Kyiv while he was having lunch in Georgian restaurant on February 12 and sent to Poland for having violated Ukrainian law in September 2017 when he illegally crossed into the country from Poland.

The ex-Presdent of Georgia was allowed entry into Poland as the spouse of a European Union citizen, the Polish guards said. Saakashvili’s wife is Dutch.

The arrest came after a series of Ukrainian court rulings against the former Governor, who was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship last year after a falling out with President Petro Poroshenko.

Saakashvili is also wanted in Georgia for multiple charges. In case he is extradited to his homeland, the third President of Georgia faces immediate arrest and imprisonment.